Talking Tokens

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, about the company's expansion into payments through its new Open Money Stack and why connecting onchain systems to real world finance is critical for keeping capital onchain. Marc explains why blockchains, stablecoins, and wallets are converging to make payments easier than traditional correspond...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nikil Viswanathan, Co-Founder & CEO of Alchemy , the infrastructure platform powering over 70% of top crypto applications and more than $150B in annual transaction volume. Nikil explains how Alchemy abstracted away the complexity of building onchain for millions of developers to create crypto products similar to mobile apps on iO...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Ben Nadareski, Co-Founder and CEO of Solstice Labs , to break down how Solstice brings institutional-grade delta-neutral trading strategies to everyday users through a permissionless, onchain structure. Ben explains how Solstice can give a $5 retail depositor access to the exact same real yield that hedge funds, trading firms, and...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Kevin Lepsoe, Founder of ETHGas , about blockspace and how a transparent blockspace futures marketplace could redefine Ethereum’s core economic engine. Kevin explains why Ethereum’s 12-second block time creates fragmentation, poor UX, failed transactions, and institutional reluctance and how slicing blocks into millisecond-resolution...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with David Schamis, CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies and Atlas Merchant Capital Founding Partner and CIO. He breaks down the rapid rise of Hyperliquid, the decentralized exchange powering billions in annual free cash flow without raising a dollar of outside capital. David explains how perps became crypto’s dominant trading product, why Hy...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mary Gooneratne, Co-Founder of Loopscale , about how tokenization, credit markets and asset mobility are converging into the next major wave of onchain finance. Mary explains why only a tiny fraction of the financial system exists onchain today, why future assets will look nothing like governance tokens or digital gold, and wha...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Parker White, Chief Investment Officer at DeFi Development Corp , about how digital asset treasuries (DATs) can evolve into onchain equivalents of banks inside the Solana economy. Parker explains why non-sovereign money is foundational to his worldview, how Austrian economics shaped his conviction in Bitcoin, and why the collapse of...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nick O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of BoDoggos . Nick shares how years of running The Nifty, one of the largest NFT media companies, shaped his understanding of community behavior, storytelling and internet culture  and how that experience ultimately led to BoDoggos. Nick reflects on the psychological cost of operating as a character,...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mert Mumtaz, Co-Founder and CEO of Helius . He shares his take on Solana evolving from earlier years with its NFT boom to the memecoin era and where it’s heading, as well as why better infrastructure, indexing and data readability were essential for scaling the network. Mert breaks down how Helius built the tools that make Solana leg...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with MacBrennan Peet, Founder of Project 0 , about why DeFi has reached a point where unified margin, solvency guarantees and onchain prime brokerage are finally possible. MacBrennan explains why risk systems and smart contract securities have matured, how Project 0 unifies margin across multiple venues, and why serious DeFi users inevita...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization , Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands , to discuss why he believes altcoins will outperform bitcoin, how tokenization will reshape global markets, and why Animoca is preparing to go public through a reverse merger. Yat explains why he thinks utility tokens are entering a new era, how regulatory clarity will unl...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Marco Santori, CEO of Solmate , about the company’s shift from a pure digital asset treasury model into an infrastructure business. Marco explains why Solmate decided to build bare metal validators in the UAE, how geography affects production, and why the region is becoming strategically important for Solana’s global footprint. They...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nitesh Nath, Founder and CEO of DFlow , about building trading infrastructure for Solana and enabling native access to prediction markets, starting with Kalshi, through DFlow’s new API. Nitesh explains why expanding market access matters for Solana’s trading community, how tokenizing these positions unlocks new DeFi composability, an...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Matt Luongo, Founder of Thesis and Co-Founder of Mezo , and Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital . They discuss how Bitcoin collateral, institutional borrowing, and onchain lending are becoming core parts of modern finance. They dive into why institutions increasingly want to borrow against Bitcoin, how regulatory...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Greg Di Prisco, Co-Founder of M0 , about how stablecoins are reshaping global finance, why banks are losing their grip on deposits, and how the next monetary layer will be built directly into applications instead of traditional banking rails. Greg explains why stablecoins may ultimately fulfill parts of Satoshi’s original visio...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Amanda Cassatt, founder of Serotonin and the former CMO of Consensys , who played a foundational role in bringing Ethereum to market. Amanda shares how she entered the early Ethereum ecosystem, what it was like working alongside early builders, and how those experiences shaped her thinking on storytelling, distribution, and product-m...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Azeem Khan, Co-Founder of Miden , a new privacy-focused blockchain designed to bring configurable, institution-ready privacy to onchain activity. Azeem breaks down why public blockchains are far more open than people realize , how institutions think about visibility and copy-trading risk, and why privacy has become a prerequisite for...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with David Phelps, Co-Founder of JokeRace, an onchain platform that wants to turn governance, incentives, and community engagement into lightweight, fun, and highly participatory experiences. David breaks down why governance has failed in most crypto communities, how JokeRace simplifies participation, and why real utility often comes from...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Eunice Giarta, Co-Founder of Monad, a new blockchain that just launched on mainnet. Eunice explains Monad’s design philosophy, the team’s focus on distribution and decentralization, and why the public token sale with Coinbase represents a new approach to retail access. They also discuss Monad’s viral airdrop campaign, the team’s long...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs. John discusses Avalanche’s approach to scaling through purpose-built L1s, how dedicated infrastructure supports institutional and enterprise adoption, and why many organizations are shifting toward onchain-first products. The conversation explores Avalanche’s burn-based token model, the...

In this episode of Talking Tokens , Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Ben Coverston , Founding Engineer at Temporal , a Solana-based R&D firm focused on blockchain performance, and cofounder of Harmonic. The conversation explores Harmonic , a new open block-building system designed to make Solana’s transaction sequencing more efficient, decentralized, and transparent. Ben discusses how the system...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization , Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Johann Kerbrat , SVP and GM of Crypto at Robinhood , and AJ Warner , Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs , the team behind Arbitrum . The conversation explores how Robinhood is bringing U.S. equities onchain through tokenization, starting in Europe, and what that means for global investors. Johann explains how the initi...

In this episode of Talking Tokens , Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Torab Torabi , CEO of Move Industries , the team behind Move Network , a new blockchain ecosystem built on the Move language. Torab opens up about the challenges of rebuilding after Movement Labs’ internal fallout, how the company restructured, and why the new chapter is focused on transparency, community, and global accessibilit...

In this episode of Talking Tokens , Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Shane Molidor , founder and CEO of Forgd , an investment banking and advisory platform that helps blockchain projects design sustainable token economies and improve market transparency. The discussion covers why crypto still struggles with low liquidity and poor disclosure standards, how market makers shape price discovery, and what...

In this episode of Talking Tokens , Jacquelyn Melinek interviews Qiao Wang , founding partner at Alliance DAO , to explore the current state of crypto startups and the broader market landscape. The conversation covers how early-stage builders are approaching stablecoins, payments, and AI-driven tools, and why the next wave of development is shifting toward real-world utility. Qiao discusses its la...